RIM itself maybe preparing for the worst, but so are their customers. Many business still have not let go of the dying handset and much like the days of writing checks in the checkout isle, they need to adapt to the present. As RIM has plummeted over the last couple of years quickly being bleed out by the likes of Apple and Android, they do have a loyal customer base but that corporate customer base is working on contingency plans to make the switch. In the article they talk of how different companies are preparing for RIM disappearing and what are their plans for different scenarios. For service disruption the company has acquired a developer of software companies manage and protect data on mobile devices and tablets. Because of outages, another company has finally moved on from RIMs infrastructure to using Apple iPhones and iPads.
Even with companies leaving RIM apparantly thinks that there is hope and that their user base is indeed loyal:
“The BlackBerry infrastructure and services are among our most valuable assets,” said Nick Manning, a spokesman for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM. “BlackBerry customers depend on our robust network and they can continue to depend on it going forward.”
So loyal that Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. began preparing for service disruption over a year ago and has since been slowly making the switch to iOS and Android devices.
“We are well on our way to having a dual environment, so if RIM did go out, we’d be okay,” Burkhart said. “If people are starting contingency plans now, they are behind the eight ball. They should have been looking at this all along.”
RIM said it would cut 5,000 jobs and posted a quarterly loss that was five times bigger than projected. Sales last quarter plunged 43 percent as RIM’s share of the global smartphone industry fell by more than half to 6.4 percent in the first three months of the year, according to research firm IDC.
Since RIM has been on a rapid decline why are many Fortune 500 companies still holding onto its infrastructure instead of making the switch that they inevitably will have to make down the line?
